Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 591 Natural and man-made disasters
There are large areas of bamboo on the edge of the grassland. The bamboos grow very fast. The tallest ones are three or four meters high, and there are some purple bamboos mixed in.

In addition, there are many trees on the edge of the orchard, including poplars, willows, banyan trees, maple trees, fir trees, mulberry trees, etc. There are dozens of different kinds of trees, all of which were transplanted into the space by Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi from Yunwu Mountains, Jiujiang Mountains and Wanshanling Mountains.

In addition to trees, there are many animals in the space, such as cows, sheep, deer, roe deer, squirrels, bamboo rats, hummingbirds, pheasants, larks, thrushes, etc.

Yang Zhengshan is still very cautious about the introduction of animals to prevent the ecological balance in the space from being disturbed.

There is only one animal at the top of the food chain in this space, and that is the tiger, three three-year-old tigers.

Apart from tigers, there are no other carnivores in this space.

In order to prevent these animals from destroying his medicinal fields and spiritual fruits, he and Yu Qingyi built a fence around the spiritual fruits, medicinal fields and ponds, enclosing hundreds of acres of land.

In this space, tigers can eat other animals, and other animals can eat grass, grains, and fruits. Birds can also eat bees. The bees in this space are becoming a bit rampant, so Yang Zhengshan specially introduced some birds to eat bees.

In fact, the most domineering creatures in this space are not the tigers, but the horses.

Those horses have lived in this space for several years. They are very strong and even the king of beasts has to avoid them.

Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi came to the grass. Yu Qingyi looked around and asked, "Are the silly roe deer gone?"

"Is there nothing left?" Yang Zhengshan jumped onto a tree and looked around. Sure enough, he did not see the silly roe deer.

"It's really the stupid roe deer, the first to be exterminated!"

The number of roe deer they introduced was not large, only seven in total, a small population.

In fact, there is no shortage of food for tigers in this space. There are plenty of chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep. If the tigers get tired of eating them, there are also elk, musk deer, and geese.

roar~~
Just as Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi were observing the animals in the space, a roar suddenly came from the woods behind them.

Yang Zhengshan turned around suddenly and yelled, "Get out!"

With a sound like a loud bell, three white-browed tigers fled into the orchard in the west.

"Why don't these three guys remember being beaten?" Yu Qingyi chuckled.

Yang Zhengshan is not a pet owner. He does not treat these tigers as treasures. These tigers are not even pets. At most, they are his experimental subjects.

In comparison, he prefers the horses in the space, which he has raised carefully.

Yang Zhengshan was too lazy to care about the three ignorant tigers and looked up at the herd of horses in the distance.

"Hongyun is getting old, should I change horses?"

"Are you willing?"

"What's there to be reluctant about? It's not like I don't want Hongyun anymore. I just want to keep Hongyun in the space in the future!" Yang Zhengshan said.

Although Hong Yun is still very strong now, his lifespan is almost reaching the limit of his life.

"Perhaps if Hongyun is kept in this space, his life span will be longer!" Yang Zhengshan said again.

In this space, Hong Yun can not only drink the spiritual spring water at any time, but also eat the grass, papaya and fruits grown with the spiritual spring water at any time.

This is definitely better than being in the outside world. Even if Yang Zhengshan takes good care of it every day, the grass it eats is still not as good as the weeds in the space.

"Then take Hongdou out. It looks very similar to Hongyun, so others shouldn't be able to tell the difference!" Yu Qingyi suggested.

Hongdou was the name given by Yu Qingyi. Like Hongyun, it has brown-red mane and a strong physique, with a similar height and build to Hongyun.

It is unknown which number of Hongyun’s son Hongdou is.

Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi walked towards the herd of horses and looked at the handsome Hongdou.

The horse was much closer to Yang Zhengshan. When it saw Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi coming, it took the initiative to come up and rubbed its big head against Yang Zhengshan.

"How about you let me ride you instead of your father in the future?" Yang Zhengshan stroked Hongdou's mane.

In fact, there are not many opportunities to ride horses on Xingyue Island, but Yang Zhengshan still likes to ride horses out occasionally, or go up the mountain, or go to the beach, or go to the fields.

The naive Hongdou had no idea how evil people's hearts were. She still felt that Yang Zhengshan was approachable, but she never expected that Yang Zhengshan actually wanted to ride on her.

The two stayed in the space for more than an hour, then took Hongdou out and threw Hongyun into the space.

Hongyun quickly integrated into the herd of horses. After all, almost all of these horses were his descendants.

But Hongdou was in a miserable situation. She was tied in the stable and almost tore it down.

Hongdou, who was used to freedom, was tied up for the first time, so he naturally felt uncomfortable.

Yang Zhengshan comforted Hongdou for several days before she slowly got used to living in the stable.

After the New Year, the affairs of Xingyue Island gradually got back on track.

Jiang He sorted out the affairs of the government office, and all the departments under the office were able to operate normally.

The boys and girls who moved here gradually got used to life on the island. They read and practiced martial arts every day. Their lives were simple and fulfilling, but a little tiring.

Of course, the liveliness of teenagers is also fully reflected on the island. These children either go to the sea to catch fish or go to the mountains to pick bird eggs, making the island a bit chaotic.

But it is precisely because of these children that the island has become more lively.

The business also got back on track. After the Luo family and the Zhen family's fleets were incorporated into the Yang family's business, they were divided into six fleets. They still did their previous business most of the time, only occasionally transporting some supplies to Xingyue Island.

In addition to the fleet of the Yang Family Trading Company, the fleet of the Tenglong Guards also often came to Xingyue Island.

Although Xingyue Island is not a must-pass place on the route, it is relatively close to several routes in the southeast waters.

Tenglongwei's maritime trade has been launched in the southeastern waters. From the Desheng Dynasty in the north to the Liusheng Dynasty, and then to the Lusheng Dynasty in the south, this route will pass near Xingyue Island.

Many merchant ships from Tenglongwei would go south along this route, and could also go east along this route.

Five hundred miles east of Xingyue Island is the territory of Shenmu Island, and five hundred miles to the southeast is the sea area of ​​the Longdan Dynasty.

There is Dihuo Island to the south of Xingyue Island, about three hundred miles away, and there is Lu Sheng Dynasty to the southwest, about eight hundred miles away.

Further south there are the Sulan Dynasty, Zhang Dynasty, Mingde Dynasty, Suodao Dynasty, Daluo Dynasty and many other island dynasties.

Some of these dynasties had very large territories. For example, the Daluo Dynasty had thousands of islands of all sizes, a sea area more than 3,000 miles long from east to west, and a population of 30 million.

There were also some with very small territories, such as the Zhang Dynasty, whose main territory was a large island with a population of over one million.

Currently, Tenglongwei’s sea trade routes have reached Shenmu Island in the east and Lu Sheng Dynasty in the south. Dihuo Island is an important partner of Tenglongwei in the southeast waters.

However, at present, Tenglongwei still has a large market to expand in the southeastern sea area. It will probably take a lot of effort to open up the shipping routes of these forces.

The business of Yang Family Trading Company cannot be expanded in the southeastern waters in a short period of time. There is no way. Yang Family Trading Company still has too few merchant ships and warships. The coast of Dayong alone is enough for Yang Family Trading Company to deal with.

In mid-February of the first year of Xingyue, Xingyue Island welcomed another group of immigrants.

More than 3,000 immigrants from Darongfuhai Province came to Xingyue Island by boat. Yang Zhengshan stood on the dock and looked at the ragged immigrants with a deep frown.

“Where did you get these refugees from?”

Luo Jinsong sighed slightly, "Funing Mansion."

These people from Funing Prefecture all looked pale and skinny, obviously suffering from long-term hunger and malnutrition.

"What's going on?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Funing Prefecture is a prefecture in the northern part of Fuhai Province. Yang Zhengshan had passed by the coast of Funing Prefecture when he went to Zhaowuwei before, but he had never been to Funing Prefecture.

Luo Jinsong explained: "Last year, there was a severe drought in Funing Prefecture, and many fields were completely barren!"

Yang Zhengshan frowned. Fuhai Province is mountainous and has little arable land. However, Fuhai Province has a large population and is the most populous province among the southeastern provinces of Dayong.

With too many people and too little land, coupled with a severe drought, the result is predictable.

"These people are tenants. Not only did they lose their harvest last year, but they also have to pay rent to the landlord, and..."

Luo Jinsong didn't say anything else, but Yang Zhengshan already understood.

The relationship between landlords and tenants is inherently one of exploiter and exploited. Above the tenants, in addition to the landlord as an exploiter, there is an even bigger exploiter, the government.

Because of the Imperial Merchants Bureau, the court has never been short of money in recent years. Logically, the taxes on the people should have been reduced, but in reality, the taxes that ordinary people need to pay have not decreased but increased.

This problem actually lies no longer in the court, but in the local government.

The court did not increase taxes, but local officials often levied various exorbitant taxes.

"There is no relief from the court?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Luo Jinsong said: "I guess the court doesn't even know there is a severe drought in Funing Prefecture!"

"Are you saying that someone is covering up the truth?" Yang Zhengshan looked a little ugly.

"Well, in Sangshan County where I went, the county government not only did not take any action to provide relief to the victims, but also closed the gates of the county town, blocking tens of thousands of victims from entering."

"After I got there, I didn't need to say anything. I just said I would give them food, and a bunch of people would follow me on board!"

Luo Jinsong said.

Yang Zhengshan let out a long sigh.

"Island Master, do you want to take care of this?" Luo Jinsong asked.

"How can I manage it?" Yang Zhengshan didn't know what to do.

Tell this to Emperor Yanping?

I guess Emperor Yanping would think he is meddling in other people's affairs.

Not only Emperor Yanping, but many ministers in the court might think he was meddling too much.

Does the court really not know?

Perhaps Emperor Yanping didn't know, but was there no one among the dignitaries in the court who knew?
This is obviously impossible. After all, many officials in the court are from Fuhai Province. There was a severe drought last year. Even if the news spread slowly, many officials in the court should have received the news.

If even they don't report it, what can Yang Zhengshan do?
"You brought so many people here, is there no one to take care of them?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"No!" Luo Jinsong said.

Yang Zhengshan thought for a moment and said, "Do we still have a few islands?"

Luo Jinsong nodded, "The Xingyuemen islands are all ours, no one dares to come and rob them!"

"The four islands in the southeast, northwest and northeast are all suitable for farming."

The Xingyue Sect previously owned sixty-four islands of various sizes, more than a dozen of which had fresh water resources and were habitable, but there were fewer islands with arable land. The four islands in the southeast, northwest, and northeast were the bases of the Xingyue Sect's four-flag army. Although these four islands were not as large as the Xingyue Island, there were tens of thousands of acres of farmland on each island.

"Go and recruit some more disaster victims, put them on those islands to farm, and give them some food every month! Help as much as you can!" Yang Zhengshan said.

Resettling disaster victims was something that everyone in the Yang family was familiar with. After all, Yang Zhengshan had resettled millions of disaster victims in Chongshan Town.

However, they now own few islands, and even fewer islands that can be cultivated, so they can only accommodate 20,000 people at most.

Yang Zhengshan wanted to help the disaster victims in Funing Prefecture, but he didn't know that the number of disaster victims in Dayong this year was far beyond his imagination.

Only Funing Prefecture and Jianyang Prefecture in the north of Fuhai Province suffered from drought, while more than 20 prefectures in the western part of Jiangnan, northern Yunnan and Guilin, southern Longnan, and eastern Shuzhou suffered from severe drought last year. During the lean period of this year, there were starving people everywhere. Tens of thousands of starving people gathered in groups outside the prefectures and county towns waiting for relief.

The imperial court had already sent a governor-general for disaster relief to inspect relief work in five provinces, but half of the money and grain for disaster relief had already disappeared before it reached the disaster area. By the time it arrived in the disaster area, corrupt officials in the local government had manipulated the money and grain, and less than 20% of the food actually made it into the stomachs of the victims.

What’s even more hateful is that a large number of unscrupulous businessmen took the opportunity to hoard food, causing many disaster victims to be unable to buy food even if they had money.

However, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the Darong court is short of food.

Western Jiangnan, northern Yunnan and Guangxi, southern Longnan, and eastern Shuzhou are all grain-producing areas of Dayong. When these four areas were affected by disasters, the grain production of the entire Dayong was seriously affected.

The famine not only occurred in the disaster area, but also spread to the surrounding prefectures and counties, and even the food prices in Kyoto were affected.

The court has no shortage of silver now, but it has no food at all.

The imperial court did not have enough food for disaster relief, and government offices at all levels took the opportunity to embezzle relief money, leaving the starving people without any help.

At this time, many of the affected areas had already been blown apart.

In the northern part of Bashu, there is the county seat of Dachang, Kuizhou Prefecture.

Thousands of hungry people had rushed into the county town, burning, killing and looting everywhere like thugs, and slaughtering all the wealthy families in the city.

Inside the county government office, the county magistrate Zhao Yuankai was guarding the gate of the government office with hundreds of yamen runners and servants.

Zhao Yuankai looked at the hungry people climbing over the wall with a panicked look on his face, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Quick, quick, kill him, kill him!"

Zhao Yuankai was very unlucky. He had just taken office in Dachang County for less than a year when he encountered a riot.

But Zhao Yuankai deserved it because it was he who embezzled food intended for disaster relief.

The relief grain from the court was not delivered, but many wealthy families in the city still gave some old grain to the county government to help the victims outside the city. However, he was unwilling to give even this old grain to the victims.

The wealthy people in the city were not kindhearted. They had no worries about food and clothing living in the city, but it was not a good idea to have thousands of disaster victims blocking the city, as it would affect their business and their own farming.

Spring plowing was approaching, so the wealthy families in the city discussed and collected 1,200 dan of old grain to send the hungry people outside the city back first.

As long as these hungry people are willing to return home, they can take the opportunity to lend money at high interest rates, annex the land of self-cultivating farmers, and recruit more tenants to farm for them.

As long as they can hold on until the summer harvest, not only will they not suffer any losses, but they will also be able to harvest a large amount of land.

(End of this chapter)